Deformity
by Skittytales
Summary: Oh, you're here, you're here! Welcome to the Dark Woods Circus. Tonight, we'll be showing the sad fate that some in this world carry...


_Alright, I was kind of beaten to being the first one to do this because while I was procrastinating, two other people went ahead and did it first. Argh. Ah well...so anyhow, this is my interpretation of Dark Woods Circus. Might also do a Wide Knowledge of the Late, Madness one, if enough people like this one (again, I was beaten to that...) Please read and review harshly. Also, I don't own the Vocaloids, as I am sure you all know. _

_One more thing - I did not write the poem in the very beginning, it is at the start of the Dark Woods Circus movie. _

_~*~_

__

Oh, you're here, you're here!  
Welcome to the Dark Woods Circus.  
Tonight, we'll be showing the sad fate that some of this world carry.  
Children who God has abandoned, restlessly creeping out.  
Children who can't even carry the trembling limbs they were born with.  
Their shaking tongues even accidentally cry out, as the crowns of their heads caress the dark clouds.  
They smile as they dream of their mother's embrace.  
Oh, the deformity!  
So, why don't you drop by and see us here  
At the Dark Woods Circus?

~*~

Carriage wheels rolled unevenly over the cobbled street, and a horse's shoes clicked along on the stones behind the little girl. She stood in the middle of a large crowd, staring up at the tall strangers as they walked by. She had come to town to see the street performers, but all she could see at the moment was a sea of legs. It was no fun at all being small, the girl lamented. Only six years of age, she was rarely noticed at all. If anyone saw her, it was always just the tip of her head, covered in short, milk chocolate brown hair. The rest of her was largely unseen, a small skinny figure with a long red skirt. Nevertheless, she pressed through the throng of legs and finally came to an opening in the crowd. It was here that she saw what she had been looking for - two clowns standing on a box, selling balloons.

No, wait, it was one clown. No, it was one clown with two heads - now that was something that you didn't see every day. But, of course, they wouldn't actually be a two-headed clown, just two people in a large suit. Her father had told her so. She advanced towards the box and put her two small hands on it, gazing up at the two people stuffed into one large suit.

One of them seemed to notice her almost at once - a young girl with short, honey-blonde hair. She leaned down and smiled at the little girl. The little girl took a step back, slightly alarmed. The older girl's smile widened, and her thin lips parted as she began to speak. "Hello there - "

" - little girl," the second head finished, as both now bent down to look at her. The second was a boy, who appeared almost identical to the girl. There was something different, however. Something about the girl's eyes that seemed...unnatural. Some quality the boy's eyes did not have.

"Would you like to - " the girl started once more.

" - buy a balloon?" the boy finished. The little girl blinked at them. They really were quite skilled at their act. She blushed slightly, not sure whether to accept. She was and incredibly shy girl, and was rather skittish about getting too close to strangers, particularly clowns.

"Only fif- "

" - ty cents," they pressed, one of them lowering a hand clutching the strings to a mass of brightly coloured balloons. Meiko spotted one balloon near the front, a vivd red one, and slowly nodded her head. The girl smiled warmly at her as the boy pulled out the red balloon she had been eyeing. The little girl held out her wrist, and the boy tied the string quickly around it, so it would not be lost.

"Just let us write - "

" - your name on it," they said, the girl pulling a marker out of an unseen pocket. This was something odd - no clown, or anyone else for that matter, had ever asked her to write her name on a balloon. The little girl stared at them, wide eyed, until they both chimed in unison, "Well?"

"Why do you want to - " Meiko stammered.

"Your name?" they said in unison.

She jumped, and then stuttered out, "M-Meiko...my name's Meiko."

The girl quickly scrawled Meiko's name across the balloon, and let it float in the air above her head. Slowly, Meiko backed away from the box, and turned to leave. The two clowns waved their arms over their heads and called out, in unison, "We'll see you later, Meiko!"

She didn't stop to wonder what they meant.

~*~

Dusk was beginning to set over the cracked pavement of the city, and visitors were slowly dispersing. Meiko, still wandering the streets, suddenly stopped. The clowns she had seen earlier were walking along ahead of her, off into the woods. In the distance beyond them, a faint orange light glowed from the trees. This peaked her curiosity, and she slowly followed their footsteps off the path and into the darkening woods.

The two clowns walked deeper and deeper into the forest, all the while whispering to each other in a low murmur that Meiko could not understand from her distance. She was beginning to regret following them this far; the sky was quickly deepening from a dark blue to an inky black, and even the stars were blocked out by the dense growth of branches. There was something rather entrancing about the forest, however, and Meiko continued onward, not noticing that her balloon had long since left her side.

Suddenly, the footsteps ahead of her stopped. Meiko stopped as well, and looked up. They had arrived at what appeared to be a large, red circus tent in the woods. The two clowns disappeared behind its flaps, and Meiko moved forward to follow them. She was stopped, however, by a large shadow that crossed over her path, forcing her to duck behind a nearby tree. Two immense figures loomed above her, heads stretched up into the dark night sky. The first was a girl in a dark blue suit and top hat, with a long, silvery ponytail flowing down her back. The second was another girl with long yellow hair, clothed in a long, green dress that swept across the ground as the two floated past in some kind of bizarre dance.

Meiko had been taught long ago that such things as giants were mere illusions put on by performers, but she still did not want to be caught. Silently, she slipped through the trees and up to the tent. There, a small hole was punctured in the tent, and a box lay just underneath it - almost as if they had been waiting there for her. Meiko hopped up onto the box and peered through the hole, and the sight her eyes met was almost too strange to even be an illusion.

The two clowns had removed their clown uniform - but they were not two clowns. Their one body was stitched together with so many thick, black stitches they were more thread than skin, and both heads were attached, side by side, by more black thread at the neck. Where threads met skin, small, intricate flowers were tattooed across their necks. It...they...both of them moved towards a large metal cage resting in the center of the tent. The girl smiled at the woman in the cage, her once blue eyes now a fierce red, and asked pleasantly, "How are you today, Miku?"

The woman in the cage looked up at the clown with dead, pale green eyes. A large, twisted horn protruded out of her long, green hair. What was more, her legs seemed to be the legs, not of a person, but of a deer. The same small flowers were patterned across her forehead. The rest of her seemed to be human as she said, in a high whisper. "Please, Rin, this is horrible. Please, just let us - "

"Go?" the girl called Rin asked, giggling slightly. "Why would you want to go, when it's so much fun here?" The boy head remained silent, and Meiko noticed suddenly that they had dropped the act of talking together. "Besides, it's almost your turn to go out, Miku."

"I _never _get to go out," said a mournful voice from the corner. Meiko's eyes flicked across the tent, to where another large cage stood. Inside of it was a young man with a mop of dark blue hair. As he spoke, Meiko noticed that his teeth were almost pointed, like a dog. "By the way," he said, blue eyes suddenly anxious. "Did you find...anything I could...you know..."

"No Kaito, sorry," Rin said, moving over to his cage now. Although both moved together, Meiko saw the eyes of the boy's head linger on the young woman called Miku still. "You just have to be patient," Rin continued.

Kaito slumped against his cage, eyes on his feet. "Sorry, I just...I get really...hungry..." he said, and Meiko picked up a hint of disdain in his voice.

"Well, just make sure you don't try to break out again," Rin said with an evil little grin. "I'm sure you didn't enjoy that straight jacket much, now did you?"

With a slow shake of his head, Kaito slid down the wall of his cage and sat, hunched over, on the cold metal floor.

"Well," Rin said, moving back over to Miku's cage and sitting down beside it. "We should probably get some rest. After all, we've got another long day ahead of us, I assume." She and her other head leaned against the fabric of the tent, and within minutes, the tent was silent.

But it was not silent for long. Once Rin's manic red eyes had closed, her twin head's had opened. Now, slowly, he shuffled sideways until he was pressed up against Miku's cage. Miku in turn moved towards him, until they were as close as was possible through the thick metal bars. Slowly, taking every caution not to wake Rin, the boy inched his hand through the metal bars and placed an arm around Miku's shoulders. She in turn stretched out a hand, which he took with Rin's arm, which he seemed to now have control of. The two sat in silence for several seconds, during which Kaito moved closer to them in his own cage. Finally, Miku whispered into the darkness, "Len, we're never leaving...are we?"

The boy beside her, Len, slowly shook his head. "Where would we go if we could leave?" he asked, more to himself than her. "We're freaks."

"We weren't always," Kaito said slowly. "Maybe we could...go back, and - "

"Have them help us like last time?" Len said coldly. "I don't think so."

Miku sighed. "If it weren't for Rin, though...we might be able to escape."

Len's gaze hardened, and Miku hastily put in, "Look, I know she's your sister and all, but she's insane! She thinks this life we have here is fun!"

Len frowned slightly. "Well, can you really blame her? She and I have been here the longest of any of you, even longer then Haku and Neru," he jerked his head towards the outside of the tent, and Meiko realized he meant the two giants prancing around outside.

"But, _you're _still alright," Miku pressed.

"Well, I've got you here," he murmured, reaching down and kissing her hand lightly. She blushed, and Kaito rolled his eyes and looked away pointedly. "But Rin...she doesn't have anybody," Len continued, his voice grave once more. Miku frowned at him, and Len continued, "You'd be surprised. Just because we're so close physically doesn't mean we're actually close. Really, we're not. I don't even remember anything about her before...before." He closed the sentence with a tight finality that Meiko did not fully understand.

Meanwhile, the conversation had failed to hold Meiko's attention, and her eyes had wandered up to the ceiling of the tent. There, hanging from a long, thin string, was what appeared to be the body of a clown. Its hair was red, and hung limply around the clown's face. The half of its face turned towards Meiko was covered in flowers, and she could not see the appearance of the body, but it seemed to be moving, ever so slightly, until at last it jerked sideways enough to expose the other side of its face. The rotting face of a dead girl stared back at Meiko, pieces of its skin peeling back to reveal deteriorating muscle and white bone. Meiko fought to keep her balance on the crate as an involuntary gasp escaped her lips.

It was a very small noise, but in an instant, Katio had lunged across his cage closer to where she stood. Meiko was so startled she had to find her balance not to fall off the crate once more. In the meantime, Kaito's lunge had woken Rin, who now gazed around the tent, looking a bit confused. Len and Miku had magically separated, neither of them looking at the other, and Meiko guessed that Rin did not yet know of their relationship. Meiko's eyes now flicked anxiously back to Kaito, who had grasped the bars of his cage tightly, as though he were about to break free.

Kaito's nose twitched, like an animal sensing its prey. Then, slowly, a horrible, demonic light crept into his eyes. "There's someone out there," he whispered, and Meiko picked up a wretched, longing moan in his voice. "Someone...human." At the word human, Kaito's mouth stretched in a wide, manic grin, and he slowly ran his tongue around his lips.

Rin stood up very quickly and strode over to Kaito, Len still silent. "Kaito. Hey, Kaito!" Rin cried, snapping her fingers between the bars. "Hey! You can't eat her, you here me? The ringmaster wants her!"

Kaito's head whipped around, and for a split second he gave Rin a look of pure loathing; he appeared almost on the edge of attacking her instead. And then, just as suddenly, the demonic glow left his eyes, and his entire body seemed to sag as he hung his head, looking ashamed at himself in spite of it all.

Meanwhile, Len had leaned over to glance out the small rip in the tent. Meiko shrank back, now thoroughly terrified of all of the circus freaks, particularly the girl called Rin. "Is she the girl from earlier?" Len asked, a faint tone of sadness in his voice. Rin nodded, and her twin let out a small sigh. "Poor little girl," he murmured under his breath, but Miku's ears picked up on what he had said.

"You lured a little girl in?" Miku cried, looking shocked. "Why would you...? How could you do that?" she shouted, glaring at Rin with narrowed eyes.

Rin simply smiled at her devilishly. "Why shouldn't we let her join? Just because she's so young? Age doesn't matter here, anyone should be allowed to join in on the fun!" Rin said, still smiling cruelly at Miku. "Besides, it's too late to change anything," Rin said, striding back over beside Miku's cage. "She's already been signed up."

Meiko saw, for a fraction of a second, the whole tent fall into stunned silence as Rin threw back her head, her eyes wide and shocked. The beginning of a high, cruel laugh pierced through the stillness of the tent as a dark shadow passed over the tent. Meiko, horror slowly dawning on her face, turned behind her, to come face-to-face with an immense, looming figure. Its head stretched up into the clouds, and it stared down at her with piercing white eyes and a wide, sharp-toothed smile.

And then it swooped down at her, and before the scream had escaped her lips, Meiko was enveloped by the darkness, and she could not see, could not hear, could not move. And then she was aware of nothing more.

The flaps of the tent fluttered slightly as Rin's insane laughter shrieked through the night air. Outside, the two giants went twirling past once more, enveloped in their own never-ceasing dance.

~*~

Carriage wheels rolled unevenly over the cobbled street, and a horse's shoes clicked along on the stones behind the little girl. She stood in the middle of a large crowd, staring up at the tall strangers as they walked by. The ruffles of her pale red dress fluttered around her ankles as she skipped happily between the crowds, adjusting the small wreath of red flowers in her hair as she went. Finally approaching one of the adults, she tugged on his pant leg, then shyly held out a flyer depicting a large, red circus tent. She smiled up at the man, and as she did so there was something about her eyes that seemed...

Unnatural.

~*~

_Alright, just wanted to clear up two little things. One...I interpreted this movie weird. And two...I support the idea that Meiko is the little girl, and not the ringmaster lady, who I left out. The clown hanging from the ceiling could be either Teto or Kiku, whichever one you want, although I think it was originally Kiku..._

_Don't forget to leave me a nice long review please~_


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